MORGAN COUNTY —— While the flooding South Platte River necessitated evacuations in Orchard, Goodrich and Weldona, the county did not have any deaths or serious injuries caused by the flowing waters, according to Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone.

"We got through it with no fatalities or injuries," he said. "Obviously, we had some damage, but that was because of the river channel. The water came through faster than we anticipated."

Crone said all bridges in Morgan County were still closed, except for the state Highway 52 bridge.

"They'll probably be closed for a period of time until the water goes down and they can be evaluated," Crone said. "Fortunately, most of the bridges are intact, but the water took the approaches out. In some areas, huge sections are gone."

He said that some of the state highways in the county suffered a similar fate, with "big sections of road that are going to have to be rebuilt," and county roads saw this type of damage, as well.

Crone said that the county's Road and Bridge Department workers were starting evaluations in some areas, but others would need to wait for that until the waters receded.

The affected county bridges include those on County Road 9 south of Weldona, Dodd Bridge at County Road 24 and the Cooper Bridge at County Road 33 by Hillrose.

Closed state highway bridges include those on Highway 144 south of Orchard, County Road 9 at Goodrich, the Narrows Bridge on Highway 144 at County Road 12 and Highway 71 south of Snyder.

Zwetzig said that county workers would be helping the Colorado Department of Transportation work on getting the Narrows Bridge open again, potentially yet today or at least in coming days.

He said the goal was to get 144 completely open again a soon as possible.

The county also had roads that were completely covered with water during the flooding, as well as some that were washed out, Crone said.

"But it's mostly the bridges themselves" that saw damage, he said.

Another problem the county is facing is standing water that may take significant amounts of time to flow away.

"The problem is we've got water that sits there because it has nowhere else to go," the sheriff said. "It will sit there for some time."

During the flooding, the sheriff's office responded to two residences, including a welfare check Sunday morning south of Snyder and an evacuation Sunday night north of Hillrose.

The welfare check amounted to nothing, as the residents did not want any help, but the evacuation involved walking a mile to County Road W.7 and then evacuating three people whose home had been surrounded by water. They were all OK, Crone noted.

"We are not aware of any unaccounted or missing persons or any fatalities," Crone said Tuesday afternoon. "We did not have to do any rescues because of stranded cars."

He said there were some cars that got abandoned because of the flood, but no one had needed rescuing because of that.

Crone also said that he did not know of any homes in Morgan County that had washed away, but there were many that had suffered some kind of damage.

Another issue caused by the storm and flooding likely was crop damage.

"Some crops were damaged, and there may be some cropland lost due to the water," Crone said, noting that some fields were damaged due to debris brought in by the flood. "It's going to need significant repair before it can be replanted. There will be significant losses for some of those folks."

Also, farm equipment still in the fields could have been damaged by the flowing water, Crone said.

But he said he was unaware of any loss of livestock.

Zwetzig also noted that the county's landfill would be open, but flood debris would need to be sorted out.

"It's going to be a congested area," he said. "We won't accept anything with asbestos, so we will require flood debris to be sorted."

Much more evaluation of everything from bridges to buildings to farmland will need to be done in coming days and weeks, Crone and Zwetzig both said.

Overall, Zwetzig said that the county had made it through the flood and would learn from the experience.

"We survived," he said. "We'll learn from it and improve. Next time, we can do what we did right again and better."

Zwetzig said the county would do what it could to help people deal with the aftermath of the flood.

"There's a lot of work still to be done," he said. "The public's been really good about working with us. Have patience, and we'll get everything back together."

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